Dozens of signs, designed by children, are being installed throughout Cheshire East to help discourage people from smoking in children's play areas.
A total of 170 play areas will be covered by the voluntary Play Smokefree code, which has been developed by heart health charity Heart of Mersey in partnership with Cheshire East Council, Central and Eastern Cheshire Primary Care Trust (PCT) and the Cheshire and Merseyside Tobacco Alliance.
A survey of Cheshire East residents, 22.2% of whom were smokers, highlighted that nearly all (97.5%) are in favour of a voluntary code of not smoking in playgrounds.
Councillor Janet Clowes, Cabinet member in charge of health and adult social care, said: "We're committed to the role our parks play in helping residents live active, healthy lifestyles and this voluntary scheme empowers our local communities themselves to change their smoking behaviour.
"Children learn their behaviour from adults. If children see smoking as a normal part of everyday life they are more likely to become smokers themselves. I think that, knowing this, most adults would agree that not lighting up in a children's play area is not too much of a sacrifice and I hope residents will support this initiative.
"Discouraging smoking around children in our play areas will help to reduce the number of young people in Cheshire East that smoke."
Photo: Councillor Janet Clowes and the Heart of Mersey's Suzanne Sweeney showcase the signs, which are being set up in play areas across Cheshire East, requesting that children be allowed to 'Play Smokefree'.
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